John McGinn turns in ‘trademark’ display but Aston Villa wrong side of ‘significant gap’

Aston Villa suffered another defeat to one of the sides above them in the Premier League table as Arsenal left Villa Park with a deserved 1-0 win thanks to Bukayo Saka’s first-half goal.

Here’s a round-up of how the national media reported on the performance of Steven Gerrard’s side…

When Villa belatedly pushed hard for the equaliser with the breeze behind their backs, Arsenal centre-halves Ben White and Gabriel headed everything that was launched into the box.

The Gunners now have a four-point cushion over fifth-placed Manchester United and will fancy their chances of returning to Europe's premier club competition. It's long way from the start of the season when they lost their first three games and Arteta's job was on the line.

Even so, they were fortunate Villa were so passive. Steven Gerrard accused his players of showing the Londoners too much respect and didn't lay a glove on their visitors until late on. It was a surprise given Aaron Ramsdale's hip injury meant a first league outing since August for Leno.

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The first 45 minutes passed by with few positives for the hosts, but if there was one thing Gerrard could be encouraged by it was the performance of John McGinn. The Scotland international was his trademark combative self as he tried to nullify the threat posed by his midfield counterparts Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka.

McGinn carried those efforts into the second half while the likes of Jacob Ramsey and Emi Buendia raised their game to match the standard of their teammate. Buendia made a stellar recovery run to thwart what could have been an Arsenal second when Saka found himself in acres of space in the Villa half having picked Ramsey’s pocket.

Goal threat seemed to elude the hosts for much of